Thursday, 3 December 2015
Akumu tantei (2006)
Three people in Tokyo take a surreal voyage of self-discovery through memory and nightmares.
Something like a Japanese A Nighmare on Elm Street, so it's a more mature cast and setting, but a more incoherent plot; the movie is marked by the director's visual inventiveness and darkness, but he has made better efforts.
Midnight in Paris (2011)
While on a trip to Paris with his fiancée's family, a nostalgic screenwriter finds himself mysteriously going back to the 1920s every day at midnight.
Very light comedy without any depth you might expect from its director, but the fatnatstical encounters with historical figures are quite entertaining.
Maltin***: "A divertissement from Allen filled with wistful charm, although it won't stand up to scrutiny; either you go along with its fantasy premise or you don't. Wilsin is the best in a long line of Woody surrogates because he truly makes the part his own."
Tuesday, 1 December 2015
Chéri (2009)
The son of a courtesan retreats into a fantasy world after being forced to end his relationship with the older woman who educated him in the ways of love.
Good production value and a worthy cast hardly prevent that the result is only vaguely compelling and somewhat sterile.
Maltin**: "...but this costume dramma...goes awry...Bates stretches patience as Chéri's mother, but Pfeiffer still has enough aging luminosity to suggest what the movie might have been."
Elysium (2013)
In the year 2154, the very wealthy live on a man-made space station while the rest of the population resides on a ruined Earth, and a man takes on a mission that could bring equality to the polarized worlds.
A good sci-fi plot with some great sets is staged like an ordinary actioner without any thrilling urgency and without the righteous moral and political rage you'd expect from the story.
Maltin**1/2: "Writer-director Blomkamp's follow-up to DISTRICT 9 offers a similar blend of science fiction and social commentary, but after a promising start it runs off the rails, becoming a grim, gritty shoot-'em-up devoid of fun. Foster's mannered performance...is also hard to take."
Evil Dead (2013)
Five friends head to a remote cabin, where the discovery of a Book of the Dead leads them to unwittingly summon up demons living in the nearby woods.
Competently made attempt to top Sam Raimi's legendary gorefest that fails, since it lacks the dark humour and the cinematic allusions of the orginal and it offers a disappointingly incomprehensible twist ending.
Maltin**1/2: "Blood-soaked remake of Sam Raimi's low-budget cult fave will likely be appreciated by rabid fans of the original (and its sequels)....Undeniably thrilling and suspenseful in parts, but very much an acquired taste. Graphic mayhem will be a turn-off for some, a turn-on for others. If you're a devotee, stay through the credits."
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